Russia calls urgent meeting of Security Council.

Russia calls urgent meeting of Security Council.(TS).

A U.N. diplomat says Russia has called for an urgent meeting of the five permanent Security Council members on the crisis in Syria.

The meeting among Russia, the United States, China, Britain and France was expected later Thursday, according to the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

Britain's leader said Thursday it was legal and just to launch a military strike against Syria even without authorization from the United Nations Security Council, arguing that Syria could repeat its alleged use of poison gas if the international community failed to act.

But Prime Minister David Cameron's also seemed to slow Britain's movement toward war, telling legislators during a lengthy debate in the House of Commons that there was still a sliver of uncertainty over who was behind an alleged chemical attack outside Damascus. He added that Britain would not act if it faced major opposition at the U.N.'s top security body.

"I think it would be unthinkable to proceed if there is overwhelming opposition in the Security Council," he said, without going into much further detail.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Thursday to use the United Nations Security Council to get a quick, international reaction to Syria's conflict, her spokesman said in a statement.

Less than four weeks before an election in which Merkel hopes to win a third term, she faces a balancing act in how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, as German voters overwhelmingly oppose military action there.

Update: Russian, Chinese Diplomats Discuss Syria in Moscow

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and China’s ambassador to Moscow, Li Hui, met in Moscow on Thursday to discuss recent international developments regarding the conflict in Syria.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the meeting had been held upon a request from the Chinese side and an emphasis was placed on issues of “further Russian-Chinese political and diplomatic cooperation in connection with the acute deterioration of the situation concerning Syria.”
Western powers are debating armed intervention in the two-year civil war after an apparent nerve gas attack that the Syrian opposition claimed was carried out by government forces and killed nearly 1,300 people. The Syrian government quickly denied the allegations and said it had evidence of rebel groups using chemical weapons.
Moscow and Beijing, both permanent members of the UN Security Council and purported allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad, have repeatedly blocked resolutions that would have paved the way for foreign military intervention.